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MEMBER DIARY

The National Butt Party

In what he casts as an attack on litterbugs and nicotine addiction alike, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to impose a fee on an age-old inhabitant of city streets: the cigarette butt.

The proposal, to be introduced next month to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, would add 33 cents to the cost of a pack of cigarettes, to offset the estimated $10.7 million the city spends annually removing discarded butts from gutters, drainpipes and sidewalks.

I agree that there are lazy smokers who litter.

But how about kids who toss their candy wrappers or soda cans on the street? Take a look at any street and tell me all the litter is only cigarettes. This is not a litter issue. It’s the ongoing use of smokers as a demonized revenue base, pure and simple. So, let’s get something started.

On the last weekend of every month, cigarette smokers (who use a legal product properly yet are demonized) will not buy cigarettes. If done monthly on a national scale, this should noticeably impact federal and state revenues to the point where lawmakers will either ban this dangerous product or leave us the hell alone.